Abstract: Modular computerized tax return preparation systems that allow tax data determinations to be performed when the user indicates that tax data will not be entered, which may be for various reasons including the user declining to provide personal information (such as a social security number or other personal identification information), not knowing the requested data, or not having the requested data readily available. A user interface controller presents an interview screen requesting data tax return data and the user responds that the requested data applies to the user but is not being entered or will be entered at a later time. A placeholder is generated or selected for interim use until the requested data is provided by the user, and when provided, tax data determinations and calculations can be repeated as necessary if the provided data differs from the placeholder.

Abstract: Computer-implemented methods, systems and articles of manufacture for rendering paginated interview screens that include arrangements of tax questions or topics representative of question or topic relevancy and that are selected and arranged based at least in part upon determined question or topic categorization and/or ranking. Different pagination structures may be utilized to visually indicate tax question or topic relevancy and to encourage or enable users of a tax return preparation application to answer more pertinent questions or topics before others, while also allowing the user to navigate or scroll questions or topics of paginated screens and to select questions or topics to answer or address at the user's discretion, without being restricted by a pre-determined sequence of interview questions or hard-coded question-and-answer frameworks. Interview screen paginations and content thereof are dynamically updated as runtime data of the electronic tax return is received or updated.

Abstract: Methods, systems and articles of manufacture for handling tax data entered prior to non-standard screen changes while preparing an electronic tax return. A computerized tax return preparation system executes a tax logic agent to evaluate missing tax data and to output suggestions for obtaining the missing tax data to a user interface manager. The user interface manager uses the suggestions to generate a normal progression of question screens. The system presents a first question screen to the user and receives a tax data value for input by the user using the first question screen. The system changes from the first question screen to a different question screen which is not the next question screen after the first question screen in the normal progression. The system may then handle the tax data value input by the user based on a setting for the tax data, such as confirming, ignoring, or using.

Abstract: Computer-implemented methods, systems and articles of manufacture for rendering paginated interview screens that include arrangements of tax questions or topics representative of question or topic relevancy and that are selected and arranged based at least in part upon determined question or topic categorization and/or ranking. Different pagination structures may be utilized to visually indicate tax question or topic relevancy and to encourage or enable users of a tax return preparation application to answer more pertinent questions or topics before others, while also allowing the user to navigate or scroll questions or topics of paginated screens and to select questions or topics to answer or address at the user's discretion, without being restricted by a pre-determined sequence of interview questions or hard-coded question-and-answer frameworks. Interview screen paginations and content thereof are dynamically updated as runtime data of the electronic tax return is received or updated.

Abstract: Computer-implemented methods, systems and articles of manufacture for modifying the manner in which interview questions are presented to a user of a tax return preparation application to provide a more personalized experience during preparation of an electronic tax return. A selected question that is consistent with a data model or schema is modified or twisted such that the selected question is reworded or rephrased. The modified question, rather than the original question, is presented to the user. The user's answer to the modified question is converted, mapped or “untwisted” to derive a corresponding answer to the original question that is consistent with the data model or schema utilized by the tax return preparation application. The corresponding answer may then be read by a rule engine or logic agent that utilizes a decision table that defines rules to determine which additional or other questions can be presented to the user.

Abstract: The disclosed embodiments relate to a tax-information assembly technique, which extracts tax information and associated context information from income-tax documents, where these income-tax documents are associated with an income-tax agency, and some of the income-tax documents include the same tax information in different document formats. During this technique, semantic and structural heuristics are used to identify tax phrases in the extracted tax information. Moreover, additional tax phrases in the extracted tax information are identified using a statistical identification technique. Next, relationships between the tax phrases and the additional tax phrases are determined, and the context information is used to consolidate the tax phrases and the additional tax phrases into a tax-information data structure.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and techniques for displaying data models and data-model instances. During operation, the system can use a model graph to represent the data model and an instance graph to represent the data-model instance. In the graph representation, a vertex can represent an entity or an entity instance, and an edge can represent a relationship or a relationship instance. The system can display the model graph and the instance graph, either separately or concurrently, thereby enabling the user to visually explore the data model and the data-model instance by exploring the associated graphs. The system can display paths in the graphs to the user, thereby enabling the user to visually explore how entities and entity instances are related to one another. The system can also enable a user to search for entities and relationships using various criteria.

Abstract: Embodiments of a computer system, a method, a graphical user interface and a computer-program product (e.g., software) for use with the computer system are described. These embodiments may be used to present income-tax information to a user. In particular, the user can provide aggregate values for one or more parameters in an income-tax return for the user by adjusting user-adjustable icons in the graphical user interface. In response to these user inputs, the computer system updates the displayed user-adjustable icons and determines summary information for the income-tax return which is associated with the user inputs. This summary information is displayed using a qualitative-tax-estimator icon in the graphical user interface and/or by displaying a numerical value for the summary information in a quantitative-tax-estimator window in the graphical user interface.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and techniques for displaying data models and data-model instances. During operation, the system can use a model graph to represent the data model and an instance graph to represent the data-model instance. In the graph representation, a vertex can represent an entity or an entity instance, and an edge can represent a relationship or a relationship instance. The system can display the model graph and the instance graph, either separately or concurrently, thereby enabling the user to visually explore the data model and the data-model instance by exploring the associated graphs. The system can display paths in the graphs to the user, thereby enabling the user to visually explore how entities and entity instances are related to one another. The system can also enable a user to search for entities and relationships using various criteria.

Abstract: Embodiments of the present invention provide systems and techniques for displaying data models and data-model instances. During operation, the system can use a model graph to represent the data model and an instance graph to represent the data-model instance. In the graph representation, a vertex can represent an entity or an entity instance, and an edge can represent a relationship or a relationship instance. The system can display the model graph and the instance graph, either separately or concurrently, thereby enabling the user to visually explore the data model and the data-model instance by exploring the associated graphs. The system can display paths in the graphs to the user, thereby enabling the user to visually explore how entities and entity instances are related to one another. The system can also enable a user to search for entities and relationships using various criteria.